How can one blame the Britons for their almost histeria about the royal wedding when the crowds in Rome cry out, "Saint, saint"?
The faithful criteria to call someone a saint are quite different from the ones formally lay out by the Catholic Church. It startles me to witness how blindly a person can be publicly voiced a saint.Whether you fancy him or not, it seems a good idea to check which of the following facts you know about the former pope now beatified:
1. The designation John Paull II means the Polish pope chose the same title of Albino Luciani, Pope John Paul I, by that indicating he would fulfill what his predecessor left unfinished. However, John Paul II did not. Just the contrary.
Luciani was found dead in his bed early in the morning, the day after he had decided to fire Paul Marcinkus, the president of the Vatican Bank, as well as others, in a brave decision to "clear the Church". John Paul II did not fire any of them - everything was kept as it had been so far.
2.Also connected with the sudden death of Luciani is the fact that John Paul II, after holding for so long the third secret of Mary, revealed, as the tradition goes, to Portuguese children in an apparition, spoke it out and it turned out to be umimportant, if not pathetic, besides self-centered: the third secret, he declared, was that he would be attacked, and that had been fulfilled when he was shot at St Peter's Square. Others claim, however, that the third mystery actually referred to Luciani's disturbing death and his all too brief and impressive role as the head of the Catholic Church.
3. Now it seems also impossible to remember how poorly John Paul II dealt with the pedophile scandal in the USA in 2004. He then asserted the Church's right not to report to the police any such cases that would further emerge.
4. Also incongruous with a future saint is that John Paul II's death itself was also a target for manipulation by the Roman Curia: He was not sent to hospital but rather left to die "naturally" in his room. The true reason? In a hospital, he could last - whatever his condition - for a long, uncertain amount of time. And the Church - that cannot elect another pope before the one in charge dies - would then remain actually 'headless', a trouble to avoid.
David Yallop's best sellers are key to learn about John Paul II real personality and the Church: Power and Glory is mainly about him, while In God's name, as the subtitle goes, is an "investigation into the murder of John Paul I" (Luciani) and into the Church itself, which claims he died from a heart attack and simply denies murder, while hiding the death certificate, etc. The former book can be found in Portuguese. But the second, no way, apart from the fact that I, the editor of this blog, have done a translation into Portuguese myself.
Luciani was found dead in his bed early in the morning, the day after he had decided to fire Paul Marcinkus, the president of the Vatican Bank, as well as others, in a brave decision to "clear the Church". John Paul II did not fire any of them - everything was kept as it had been so far.
2.Also connected with the sudden death of Luciani is the fact that John Paul II, after holding for so long the third secret of Mary, revealed, as the tradition goes, to Portuguese children in an apparition, spoke it out and it turned out to be umimportant, if not pathetic, besides self-centered: the third secret, he declared, was that he would be attacked, and that had been fulfilled when he was shot at St Peter's Square. Others claim, however, that the third mystery actually referred to Luciani's disturbing death and his all too brief and impressive role as the head of the Catholic Church.
3. Now it seems also impossible to remember how poorly John Paul II dealt with the pedophile scandal in the USA in 2004. He then asserted the Church's right not to report to the police any such cases that would further emerge.
4. Also incongruous with a future saint is that John Paul II's death itself was also a target for manipulation by the Roman Curia: He was not sent to hospital but rather left to die "naturally" in his room. The true reason? In a hospital, he could last - whatever his condition - for a long, uncertain amount of time. And the Church - that cannot elect another pope before the one in charge dies - would then remain actually 'headless', a trouble to avoid.
David Yallop's best sellers are key to learn about John Paul II real personality and the Church: Power and Glory is mainly about him, while In God's name, as the subtitle goes, is an "investigation into the murder of John Paul I" (Luciani) and into the Church itself, which claims he died from a heart attack and simply denies murder, while hiding the death certificate, etc. The former book can be found in Portuguese. But the second, no way, apart from the fact that I, the editor of this blog, have done a translation into Portuguese myself.
